


The Mad King's Daughter

by AugustStories



Series: Game of Thrones Season 8 Oneshots [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Connections between past and present, Don't read this if you're a fan of Daenerys and cannot accept other people's opinions, not Daenerys friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 15:26:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18594073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustStories/pseuds/AugustStories
Summary: He had hoped to never have to think it but now he is standing in Winterfell and he doesn't know the Queen staring back at him but he also knows her well, he knows her too well.Jaime Lannister comes face to face with Daenerys Targaryen.





	The Mad King's Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> I am entitled to have my own opinion of characters. I am not a fan of Daenerys as she is portrayed on the show, so as a last warning, don't read this if you're her fan.

Jaime had thought many times over what he would think of when he stepped in front of Daenerys Targaryen, he knew what she would see, what she would think, what she would say but he had been so unclear.

And he didn't really have the mindset to even think anything until the third time he meets her, the first time on the battlefield he was too focused on the dragon and the fighting, the second time there were too many enemies and vague allies surrounding his sister – when he was still her man and not her enemy, too.

Now as he stood here in the Great Hall of Winterfell, facing the Dragon Queen framed by a woman who had once been his sister-in-law and Ned Stark's bastard who was broodier than ever, he could finally remember that he had never managed to find expectations and couldn't remember the few thoughts he had maybe once had.

Had he expected to find a quiet kindhearted younger version of Rhaella?

Had he expected her to look like her mother or more like her brothers?

Had he expected to find something in her right away that tied her to the belief and hope he had once had in Rhaegar?

Jaime had only known six Targaryens in his life so far, Viserys had been a child and full of potential still if someone only had taken him away from his father's grasp. Rhaenys had only stopped being a babe and Jaime didn't want to think of her, Aegon had still been a babe at the breast. Rhaella and Rhaegar, they had been the ones with the hopes, the visions for a great Westeros, they had been good.

So yes, Jaime's expectations of Daenerys Stormborn had surely been full of comparions to those souls, maybe even find the smallest spark of good old Willem in her.

What he hadn't wanted to expect, what he had never wanted to find was to see Aerys Targaryen starring back at him out of Rhaella's face.

Maybe it should have been his thought from the beginning, maybe all the stories, all the rumors they had heard over the years should have pointed that way, Jaime had just hoped that it couldn't be true. The Mad King's daughter. Robert had called her that, Jaime's father had called her that, Cersei had called her that, half of the bloody Red Keep had called her that, probably the third of the whole country had.

She was Rhaella's daughter, too, Jaime had always wanted to tell people then, to hold against their dark arguments, she was Rhaella's, too. Aerys had been dead moons before she had been born, he had never touched her, he had never even breathed in her presence. Not like he had tried to already corrupt Viserys but even he had been such a sweet boy back then.

She was Rhaella's, too.

But now here he stood.

And he saw Rhaella's daughter, a young woman who looked so much like her mother, from her height to the tip of her nose, she was all Rhaella. Rhaegar and Viserys had come after Aerys and their grandfather but Daenerys was her mother through and through.

In looks.

The rest?

Not so much.

The Mad King's daughter.

He looked at her and saw rage, saw fire and anger, saw dangerous determination and thickheadedness and he wanted to grab the Starks and shake them. Shake them until they backed off, until they dropped any and all ties to this Targaryen Queen while they were standing above the crypt that held the very bones of the men her father murdered.

Your grandfather, he wanted to remind them, I saw how the Mad King burned your grandfather. I heard and saw how the Mad King laughed while your uncle strangled himself to death.

Daenerys Targaryen looked at him with her father's eyes, not in color, but everything else and it chilled Jaime right down to the bones. 

Daenerys Targaryen spoke to him about the things her brother had told her about Jaime Lannister, and she spoke to him with her father's voice and her father's words and it cut at the walls he had put up in himself so long ago. He didn't blame Viserys for any of it, the boy had been so terrified in the end before leaving for Dragonstone and all the things that followed after... Viserys had just been old enough to really understand the dangers and the betrayals. Rhaegar had been his hero when he had been a little boy admiring the Kingsguard in the training's yard, sitting next to his reading brother or hanging from Arthur's hands, peeking out from behind Gerold's cloak, begging Oswell to see the twin swords, following Jonothor like a duckling.

All those men dead then, so of course Viserys would poison his sister's ears with his hatred over the enemy, over the traitors. The kid had lost everything with the death of his mother, and Jaime knew how much that hurt at least. But Daenerys should have known better, she should have been informed before stepping foot onto Westeros, she should have asked about the past of her family, should have been well educated in the history of Westeros and especially Robert's Rebellion.

The Mad King's daughter it echoed in his mind again and again and he wanted to tell his brother to get away from her, leave while you still can, he wanted to say, Aerys made short work of the Hands who didn't please him, don't let yourself be her first example.

Of course, part of the blame laid with Jaime as well, he should have told people about Aerys' plans for blowing up the capital, he should have right away explained to Ned Stark that he had never had any choice in killing the King.

'I did it for the people who were innocent. In the castle and the city. I did it for Elia. I did it for Rhaenys and Aegon. I did it for Viserys and Rhaella. I did it for all of us.'

Sansa Stark's accusations hit hard but those at least he could justify, it had been war and Ned Stark had been armed, he had protected his family and his House. He could see Sansa's anger but there was also pain in her eyes, pain and betrayal and emotions. Daenerys kept on staring at him with cold fire in her father's eyes.

When Brienne defended him and stood up for him, Jaime internally pleaded with her to not spill what he had told her in his weakest moment, don't let it come out like that, but he also watched the three people on the daise. 

Two Starks and a Targaryen.

The Mad King's Daughter and Rickard Stark's grandchildren.

He watched how Daenerys glared at Sansa Stark for throwing her weight behind Jaime and he wanted to snatch the Lady of Winterfell away. Don't become your grandfather, he wanted to yell at her, be careful or you burn like he did.

He watched how Daenerys turned towards a nearly apathic Jon Snow and asked him for his opinion and Jaime didn't need to be his smart brother to see tension in the Warden of the North's shoulders, how he didn't even look at the Queen at his side before making a general statement over needing all men they could get. He saw how Daenerys narrowed her eyes at him in displeasure and Jaime wanted to push the former King away from her, your uncle pissed off the Mad King, he wanted to snarl at him in a reminder, and he hung for it.

Do you want to see your sister burn, Jon Snow, like your uncle was forced to with his father?

When the decision was made by Daenerys to let him stay and fight for Winterfell among their armies and Jaime's sword was returned to him, he was so glad that Daenerys not only quickly left but that the sword in his hand was no longer the one he had run through the Mad King's back.

He would stay to fight against the Dead, to defend Winterfell and the North and all of the rest of Westeros from the Night King's army.

Jaime Lannister would also stay and protect the Starks and Westeros from the Mad King's daughter.


End file.
